Markmedia

Australian Newspapers beta Historic Australian Newspapers, 1803 to 1954

The National Library of Australia has launched a public beta of its 'Australian Newspapers' site. The site will offer access to scanned images and text from historic Australian newspapers dating from 1803 to 1954.

The site looks awful at the moment. Clutered and not pretty. But it is a beta and the information is interesting and useful.
It will only get better

Chronicling America Update: 73,000 newspaper pages added - now includes papers published 1890-1910 and 2 new states - Nebraska and Texas

On August 1, more than 73,000 newly digitized newspaper pages were added to the Chronicling America Web site at www.loc.gov/chroniclingamerica/, including content from 2 new states - Nebraska and Texas - and expanding coverage in the 1890s.

With this update, the site now provides access to more than 642,000 digitized newspaper pages, published between 1890 and 1910, and representing 74 newspapers from California, the District of Columbia, Florida, Kentucky, Nebraska, New York, Texas, Utah and Virginia.
Chronicling America is a project of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), which is a partnership between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

The Hague Justice Portal

The Hague Justice Portal serves as the online presence of the Hague organizations and their work on issues related to international peace, justice, and security.
The "latest News" section is worth monitoring.
The "International Justice Forum" section contains a series of interactive forums designed to facilitate discussion on topics related to international law. While sparsely populated at present it could be a useful area for  journalists to find both experts and interested parties.

Glasgow tagged [Make a local PiciWiki]

The Glaswegians Photo Archive is a byproduct of the Cranhill Arts Project, the largest documentary photography project in Scotland; 30,000 photographs taken between 1989 and 1992.

This on-line archive provides a selection of these photographs that are "a record of Glasgow through photographs of its people - their lives, habits, quirks and cultures." 
The images are organized into topical albums, such as "Things You Don't See Anymore" where aspects of Glasgow that have disappeared or been altered in the sixteen years since the photographs were taken are displayed. 
These lost Glaswegian sights include orange and black buses, smoking in pubs, and getting pissed.
Or Nice Glaswegian Ladies, which is exactly what it says on the tin.
Another album, Protest and survive, shows just how hated the Poll Tax was with Glaswegians and goes on to group celebrations like May Day and the release of Nelson Mandela with other political campaigns. Visitors can sign up for an account in order to tag photos, and with or without an account, it's possible to search or browse by existing tags.

In this flickrista age, why is there not an archive of every town in the UK, with taggable pictures and the ability to build the stories told by the pictures? Make a local PiciWiki and grow the knowledge.

Update: Joanna at the Birmingham Post let me know about a similar site for the the West Midlands - the big picture

Drug Information Portal

This database, launched in February 2008, provides information about over 12,000 drugs, including prescription and non-prescription drugs, dietary supplements, drugs of abuse, and investigational drugs. Searchable by generic or brand name, or browse resources by drug class or by audiences such as the public or librarians. Also includes news, featured drugs, and related resources.
 

American Customer Satisfaction Index

The ACSI produces indexes for 10 economic sectors, 43 industries (including e-commerce and e-business)[PDF], and more than 200 companies and federal or local government agencies. The measured companies, industries, and sectors are broadly representative of the U.S. economy serving American households. Smaller companies are grouped together in an “All Others” category for each industry.

Free documentaries

Got some time on your hands? (Yeah, I know)
Dying to check out the video quality on that new Ipod the company just gave you? :-)

Have a look at freedocumentaries.org. They provide exactly what it says on the tin.
Amongst the multitude of worth seeing stuff:
Bowling for Columbine, Slavery: A Global Investigation,  Outfoxed and a whole lot more.

Looking for a case study?

Here is an interesting little experiment.
Ever looked for a case study? Need to get in contact with a pregnant single mother of three living in the lap of abject poverty in the west? Try this blog.

It is run by the:101, a team of journalists and bloggers who provide a range of training courses designed to help PRs and journalists work together more effectively , but don't let that put you off.

After years of finding case studies through friends of friends, and word of mouth on forums, websites and PR wires, we decided to see if social media can improve the process.

On the site, you can see a range of requests from journalists who are looking for case studies. If you're able to help, use the contact button on the posting, or leave a comment. You can see recent requests on the blog front page, as well as browse through requests using the category links on the right.

copyright and intellectual property laws resource (US)

David Dillard of Temple University has put together a list of links to a variety of sources covering various aspects of copyright and intellectual property laws. Mostly US oriented but still very useful and usable:

More of the same from
http://guides.temple.edu/general-internet

Even the US Government blogs

The US government has a very useful collection of reference links.
Amongst them a list of blogs from the U.S. Government.

This could be of some use to journalists covering the US elections